CLEVELAND — Ohio’s Democratic statewide ticket is trying its best to make sure voters don’t
forget Gov. John Kasich’s support for Senate Bill 5 and what they call an “assault on middle-class
families.”

Yesterday, the third anniversary of Kasich’s signing into law the measure that would have gutted
public-employee collective-bargaining rights had voters not repealed it in November 2011, Democrats
staged events across the state to remind voters of Kasich’s role.

Will it work?

Paul Beck, veteran political scientist at Ohio State University, said you can make an argument
both ways.

“You know, three years in politics is an eternity,” he said. “I think that one thing that has
happened in that interim is that Gov. Kasich in particular was really chastened by the repeal of
Senate Bill 5 and kind of backed off in a variety of ways.”

On the other hand, the 62 percent who voted against the issue championed by Kasich “was a
remarkable repudiation of something that had passed the legislature,” Beck said.

A key factor may be the nearly 400,000 state and local public workers and their families who
would have been directly affected by Senate Bill 5 — many of whom said three years ago that they
had voted for Kasich but would never do so again.

“That’s a lot of voters. And I think a lot of them will be reminded of that (issue) either by
their union or by the Democratic campaign,” Beck said.

During a press conference yesterday in a Cleveland union hall, gubernatorial candidate Ed
FitzGerald said Kasich met with him privately in late 2010 after they both had won election.
FitzGerald said the governor-elect said, “We’re going to change the rules when it comes to public
workers … and how they’re able to bargain for their pay and for their benefits.”

FitzGerald said he stopped Kasich and told him that there was a way to work with unions without
taking away their rights. “The reason I reference that conversation is that nowadays, now that
three years have passed … Gov. Kasich has a very hazy memory about Senate Bill 5.”

Kasich campaign spokeswoman Connie Wehrkamp’s response: “The Democrats are raising this issue
because it’s political drama because they have no substantive accomplishments.”

Randy Cole, a top Kasich policy adviser who has focused on pushing local government
efficiencies, said good has come from the debate over Senate Bill 5 in terms of shared
services.

“Instead of it being us versus them in management and labor, it was what can we do together for
our mutual benefit or for the taxpayers,” Cole said. “I think it provided a catalyst to get people
focused on what they could do together.”